May and June IPOD pics

 Adorable Kimball and is sweet teacher MS. Monica and his class had a mother's Day luncheon where they spoiled all of us mothers. It was so sweet and so fun to be with my cutie Kimball that day! He even gave me a beautiful bead bracelet he made in school. I love it!

 Then Peter and the boys spoiled me for lunch on Mother's day and made me crepes with lots of yummy fruit. I'm one lucky lady! In the car on the way to church that day, out of the blue, Kimball said, "Mom, Dad's in WUV with you!"  It was so cute. I'm glad he can see the love between his parents.

 Nothing better than being covered in sweet berry juices after devouring many messy crepes.

 This was one of Joey's dreams come true :) For swim team, each of the parents had to sign up and do different jobs for a certain number of hours.  I signed up for a few times of doing concessions  and Joey was right by my side. Kimball was more than happy to stay in the pool and play with the older kids after his practice time, but all Joey wanted to do was be in there near all that candy. He loved selling it and getting the correct change for people. It was so fun to see him so happy and excited. Future candy store owner--here he comes.

 During our drive from San Antonio to Surfside beach, Kimball took lots of silly pictures using an app on my ipod. I even found one of Uncle Steve on there from the drive back from NASA to the beach house.

One morning Joey went outside right after breakfast to enjoy the peaceful ocean view. After a few minutes cute little Caleb came out to join us.

 I was so excited to take Joey on a special mother-son date for his birthday!! There  was one ride at Sea World, the Wahalla Wave, that joey had been dying to go one after they completely redid the water park. Kimball was just not quite tall enough, plus it was too scary for him (and me for that matter :)). So since Peter was done working on Joey's B-day, we got to let Dad and Kimball have a fun time together while Joey and I had one last adventure. Joey really loved getting his picture taken with these amazing macaws.

 Aquatica

This is the Wahalla wave.  You go down a long, twisting tunnel until you suddenly get pushed downward really fast and then flung up, completely sideways. (I still have no idea how people don't fall out of that raft).  So Joey and I get to the top of the stairway and I am totally getting scared, Joey seems a little apprehensive   We ask the lifeguard if she can start us so we're both sideways -so neither of us have to be backward. She tries, but during the first 5 seconds,the water turns us, and I AM BACKWARD--which I hate :). We get flung all over the place and I cannot tell what is happening. I have a total heart-attack  and when we finally get to the bottom, I'm still trying to recover my vital bodily processes and I look over at Joey and he's got his hands in the air and shouts, "that was awesome!" That's when I knew he was an adrenaline junkie.  He immediately wanted to go on again (I'm wondering if I need to take myself to the first-aid station :)), and because I love him so much and it was his birthday, we went on again. This time be was backward, and he still loved it. He's a brave kid, and I am apparently getting old.  After that I convinced him to lounge with me in the wave pool.

                            

Best part of the day #1--getting that coveted cotton candy (since Dad wasn't there to protect our teeth)

 Best part #2--the sting ray encounter. Joey has such wonderful grandparents and great-grandparents who sent birthday money. We were able to go and get right in the sting ray pool with them.  Let me just tell you that those little guys are hungry. They are bottom, suction feeders, and they have a powerful suck. We got in and they immediately began to swarm us. It was pretty amazing to be surrounded by sting rays. You hold the fish like an ice-cream cone, with a little bit of fish sticking up out of your fist, and the rays swim over and suck it our of your hand. That was fun, but after a few minutes it was getting a little too much for Joey. they had almost sucked his shorts off, and I was done with my kneecap being mistaken for sting-ray food. We then went to the shallow end of the pool and Joey could pet the rays in peace.

 ice cream cone fish hold

 Ahh, the shallow end was so much better. You could touch the cute little guys without being sucked alive.

Joey looking at the giant ray that swims above Stingray falls.

                                               

Happy Birthday Joey!  I am so glad I got to spend that day with you!  You are one amazing boy and so fun to be around!  Thanks for letting me spend that day with you. (Just please don't get too old and "cool" that you don't want to spend your birthday with me ;)

June Gurr Reunion

We were so excited for a whole week at the beach. After a lot of looking up rentals, Camille found this awesome place in Surfside, TX.  It's a very small town--they tell you directions from "the (one and only) traffic light. It was the best family beach spot--no crowds, perfect waves, big enough to body surf but not dangerous with little ones, and the water was so warm!  usually ocean water is freezing this was either warm or just right. We definitely want to go back again!

 The kids loved decorating cookies. They were all doing the thing where you slide your hand up and down in front of your face to change from happy to frowny face.

 Peter's crab that he caught, cooked and ate

We has such a great time going to NASA Space Center in Houston Texas. It was great for kids and adults!  We all learned a lot and had a lot of fun. One of Joey's top 3 jobs is now to be  an astronaut.  We toke the tram and toured all around the center, learning and seeing where they assemble the spaceships and ROV's.

 The boys inside a retired space shuttle. They then got to explore another planet with Peter and Caleb

 The fun tram that took us around NASA to see where they assemble the ships

 We then saw the amazing rockets that carry the shuttles and astronauts into space. We were amazed by how massive they are!

I looked over and saw  Kimball "measuring" himself against the height of some great heroes. I have no doubt he will be just as amazing.

 I just love those guys

 One of the best places for kids to play

 Yup, we really touched a piece of the moon--pretty amazing

We were so happy to have an entire week to play on the beach with cousins. We ate and ate and ate, played in the sand for hours, and loved boogie boarding on the waves. It was always an adventure to catch some crabs.

Peter and I found this great place down the road with tons of crabs. We took everyone back and all the kids found their own crab claw souvenir.

 Family pic. My favorite is Joey, standing as if nothing is abnormal, with a blue clothespin on his nose. I love that kid.

 The second best feature of this house, beside being right on the beach, were the "portholes" in the wall. The kids played for hours there. They took turns throwing balloons to catch or asking questions that were rewarded with stickers.

 All the kids going on a treasure hunt.

 Peter and Steve's crabbing adventure

 The sand castle and moat

 There is nothing like running straight out of your house, boogie board in hand, and heading right for a great adventure in the ocean.

 Peter and I took the boys on a "late-night" (to them at least) crabbing adventure. We searched in crab holes and all across the sand to see those little guys flash across the sand.  They are shockingly fast!

 The picture below is my favorite because it shows their personalities so much. They're all crouched and ready for action, but Kimball's just ready to pounce without hesitation on whatever he sees, and Joey has his hand out to restrain Kimball from scaring away the crabs before Dad can get them.

 We caught 3 crabs with everyone working together to be spotters, cornerers and trapers. We took our find back to the house to show the other cousins that were still awake.

 Then we released them back to their sand homes

 Joey and Megan and Simon played all day int he water together. I'm so glad they got to have that older cousin time. They liked the big raft.

(here's the rest of the NASA pics that uploaded later)

 The kids had tons of fun playing. they loved this one interactive game where you had to catch fruit on your arms without being eaten by the jaguar

 Our little Joe next to the rocket "Little Joe."

 This was our last day at the beach, after cleaning and packing everything. It is always so hard to leave. We love the beach!